2009: It's a brand new year!

Well, it's a new year and I'm afraid this year won't be nearly as fun as last year, but I guess that depends on how you look at it. I won't be lounging on the beaches of Costa Rica (which, by the way, they just had a huge earthquake killing over 30 people and trapping a lot of tourists so I hope things gets better there) but I will be starting something new this year. I'll be starting the doctorate program in physical therapy at the Mayo Clinic in August. Yes, I decided where I will be spending the next three years of my life--Rochester, MN. I know, I know... how exotic right? So, I can basically blog the next year of my life without actually blogging again. It goes it a little something like this:

1) I will start my last semester at SDSU in a few days...taking classes that I don't really need, including "Conditioning through Swimming" which will end up in me hating swimming because I hear it's not that fun swimming for 30 minutes straight, but hopefully I will end up looking as toned as Michael Phelps (haha)... But I'm looking forward to my last semester and I will be sad to have to leave all of my friends. I've truly enjoyed my time in Brookings.
2) I will graduate in May with my bachelor's degree in Spanish and end up working wherever I can find a job for the summer (IF I can find a job in this lovely economy, I'm thinking McDonald's...again..).
3) Meanwhile, I'll be attempting to find an apartment in Rochester while enjoying my last summer of freedom...EVER... but I guess it had to happen sometime.
4) Then, in August I'll move to Rochester and begin my studies, which may result in stomach ulcers and my hair falling out (yes, I am a little concerned).

And that basically sums it up... The next three years of my life I'll be studying, sleeping (maybe), eating (hopefully), and studying some more. And I'll spend my summers working for free (a.k.a doing my clinical internships).

So, God willing, that is basically how my life will be go. Recently, I've been thinking about where I can move to after my 3 years in Rochester because I like to have a game plan. Right now I'm thinking...Alaska? If you have any better suggestions, let me know : )

Wow, Long Time No Talk

So, I guess I decided I'd like to keep blogging. However, I must warn anyone that stumbles across this that it will NOT be as entertaining as my Costa Rica posts. There will be no robbing, nor mountain climbing, nor termite eating. However, there will be boring stuff like..."I applied to PT school in September" and "I have been accepted to Des Moines University but still have more interviews to go to." So, let that be a warning.
This past summer after getting back from CR I worked in a factory. I made motor parts for Kitchen Aid mixers. That was basically my summer. My family went on a "vacation" to Aberdeen, SD to see an exhibit of human cadavers and to see the Terry Redlin Museum. Basically, that was it.
Now I'm back in B-town, South Dakota finishing up my senior year. As I sort of mentioned, I will be attending physical therapy school next year. I will graduate in May with a B.A. in Spanish. Then I'll go to school for approximately 33 more months to become a doctor in physical therapy. Woo Woo! Right now I'm waiting to hear back from all of the schools that I applied to. I have an interview at the Mayo Clinic in a week.
Other than that I've really just been enjoying life and such. Taking advantage of not being in the real world. This weekend I'm going to Missouri for a Collegiate 4-H Conference so that should be enjoyable.
Anyway, that's about all I've got. Oh, and for Halloween I was a bunch of grapes...so I'll post that picture just to show how cool I looked!
Paz...
Jessica

No se preocupe (don't worry) I'm still alive!

So, Just thought I'd drop a line mentioning that I'm still alive. I've been quite busy the last few weeks. Who knew I'd have so much homework. Anyway, only 6 days left in the "Rich Coast" and then it's back to Iowa where it could snow one day and then have a massive tornado the next. I'll be back on American soil on May 8th, so I'll definitely write about the last month then and add some pictures. Anyway, I'm still kicking...

My Favorite Place in Costa Rica: The Bottom of the Ocean!

So good news everyone: my lungs didn’t explode! How great is that? Actually, it turned out to be an amazing experience. I’ve actually decided me favorite place in Costa Rica is on the bottom of the ocean. And now I’m a certified scuba diver, which means I’ll probably go diving again in about…oh 10 years or so, if I’m lucky. Actually, I hope I get to go more than that, but ya know, the rivers in Iowa just don’t compare to the ocean.

Anyway, so how does one go about getting certified? Well, on Friday we left for Playa Hermosa (Beautiful Beach). It took us nine hours to get there because of the bus schedules. And actually, we got the last bus that went to Playa Hermosa. The scary part was, the bus was supposed to leave at 5:30, and we didn’t get there until 5:40, but fortunately it was running behind schedule. We finally got to our hotel, which was an ordeal in and of itself, at around 8:00 on Friday.

On Saturday we woke up bright and early to start exploring the pool. But before we could learn to dive, we had to learn how to use the gear. When diving you wear a wet suit, a weight belt, flippers, a mask, and of course, a tank full of oxygen with 3 hoses coming out of it. The three hoses provide air to you, to others (if necessary), and to the vest because you need to fill it with air to float. We learned in the pool first to get used to the regulator (the breathing apparatus) and the buoyancy controls. We all got in a circle and we had to practice taking our regulators out and then putting them back in, using other people’s octopuses (an extra regulator attached to your air tank, used to share oxygen with people if they run out), and taking our masks (goggles) off. Taking the goggles off scared me a little. To get the water out of the mask you push on the top part of it, tilt your head back, and blow air out of your nose. I hate getting water in my eyes, and I definitely hate having a plastic thing full of water suctioned to my head. I did it, and I got some water up my nose and my eyes hurt a little, but I did it without going to the surface.

That afternoon we went to the ocean. Only 6 of us went down at a time (there were 10 total) because we only had one instructor. Dan was my partner, so we were in charge of looking after one another. I won’t lie, I was a little nervous. However, we only went into water that was about 20 feet deep, so you could come to the surface at anytime. We swam through a massive school of fish, and we saw tons of blow fish and many other kinds of tropical fish. We also saw eels and an octopus. I filled up my whole 27 exposure, waterproof camera. So I’m hoping some of those pictures turn out. That dive lasted about 50 minutes. When you start, your air tank has about 3000 psi of air pressure, and you have to come up when someone gets down to 1000 psi.

On Sunday we took a boat out to an island. On the way there we saw “something” whales (I’m so specific, I know), which are actually a type of dolphin. Anyway, we got to the island and all 12 of us went down at the same time. This time we went down to about 50 feet. Some people had problems adjusting their ears to the pressure, but I could swim straight down, fortunately. I just had to keep swallowing. On this dive we saw a sea turtle, which I would estimate (although water distorts the distance and size of objects) was about 3 feet long. It was a Green Sea Turtle, and when people tried to touch it, the guides banged metal snaps on their air tanks and shook their heads no.

We were on the bottom for about 30 minutes for that dive.

On the surface we had to wait 40 minutes before we could go back down. This has something to do with letting your body adjust to the pressure, or air, or something again. I should probably know this since I’m technically certified, but I guess I’ll play it safe and go with guides, or I’ll have to study a bit before I go down on my own. During the 40 minute break, some of us swam to the island and went into a shallow inlet/cave thing. There were hundreds of crabs all over the rocks, and when you got near they just dove to safety into the ocean. It was pretty cool except one of the girls sliced open her foot on the island because it was made out of coral type stuff and was very sharp.

Anyway, we put our tanks back together, got our gear on and went back down. I was one of the first people down, and when we got to the bottom, Myra (our instructor) gathered us together and signaled for us to watch her. She then proceeded to take her regulator out of her mouth, let go of it, grab it again, and put it back in. Then she pointed at us, signaling it was our turn. I had no problem doing this, even though I was 50 feet from the surface, it wasn’t that hard to get the respirator back in and blow the water out. However, when she proceeded to take her goggles off, my heart started pounding. When it was my turn to take my goggles off, I shook my head no… I was not about to fill my eyes with salt water, suction waterlogged goggles back onto my head, blow my precious air out, all while attempting to breath through my mouth—at the bottom of the ocean. I’m sorry, I just wasn’t ready for such daring things. She signaled for me to calm down. And then she asked me if she could fill my goggles with water. I shook my head yes, so she filled them with water just a little over the tops of my eyes. I then attempted to blow it out, and I got it even though it took me a few tries. So essentially what I did was the same thing, but I didn’t fill my goggles with water myself. Who does that in real life anyway? I stayed calm (enough), but I think I definitely used up more oxygen than I normally would’ve.

On this dive, we saw mostly the same animals again. However, there were trumpet fish that were about 3 feet long, 2 inches wide, and almost transparent. I also saw big eels. I think they’re called moray eels, or something similar to that. The guide told me to stick my fingers by its mouth (as a joke, obviously), but I’m not dumb. I’ve watched “The Little Mermaid” enough times to know better than that.

Anyway, this time they decided to only take people up when their oxygen was running low, and since I was one of the first people down (and I did breathe rather heavily during the goggle incident) I had to go up after only 35 minutes.

Even though I love air, and I think there are many beautiful places above sea level, there’s something spectacular about the sea floor. It really is a completely different world. It looks like everything is flying, and you can even fly yourself. You just fly through the water in a world that you don’t belong to, but for 35 short minutes you can. So if there is anyone else out there who watched “The Little Mermaid” as many times as I did or just really loves water, I definitely recommend scuba diving. It’s definitely worth it, even if you do get a little salt water in your eyes.

"Family Weekend" and Fruits

Last weekend I had a relaxing weekend with the family. My family took me to a town that I don’t remember the name of. (I know, I love it when I’m specific). We stayed in Ana’s niece’s house. It’s her second home and it is located fairly close to the beach. We left Saturday morning and came back Sunday afternoon. The house has a Jacuzzi, a cold water Jacuzzi to be exact. But it felt nice since it’s so hot there. On Saturday night we went to town and saw a parade of horses (it has a Spanish name…it might be “tope” but I’m not sure). There had to have been more than 250 horses in this “tope”. After that finished we went to the “Fruit Fair.” A bunch of fruit farmers brought their crop in to sell. Ana bought me a bunch of crazy fruit because I wanted to try it all. I took pictures of them all on Sunday, and then I had Ana tell me the name so I could look it up in the dictionary. However, we don’t have English words for these fruits. Why? Because we’ve never ever seen them or eaten them because they are crazy and only grow in the tropics. Some of these fruits we would never even think of eating because they don’t even look like fruit. As I was writing the names of them down, I wrote descriptions of them. For more than two different kinds I compared them to a potato. This one looks like a small, hairy potato, and that one looks like a big pointy potato. Obviously I’m a potato girl. One fruit that actually is in the dictionary is the soursop (guanábana). If any of you have ever eaten a soursop, please tell me because I will be utterly amazed.
It was a nice relaxing weekend. We ate copos (a.k.a granizados) which are like snow cones, except they’re made with powdered milk and condensed milk as well as the flavor syrup. I also played games, including Uno, with Ismael. An interesting side note about the game Uno. Whenever Costa Ricans ask me if I know how to play (if they’re speaking in English) they ask me if I know how to play One. At first, I was very confused, but when I realized what they were asking me, I found it quite hilarious. Apparently, they think that we call it One in the States. They were quite shocked when I told them that we also call it Uno. Anyway, I just thought that was an interesting little tid bit.
Next weekend I will be traveling to Puntarenas to learn to scuba dive. As long as I remember to keep breathing out as I ascend to the surface (so my lungs don’t explode), I should be fine. No worries.
On Monday I went to Sonrisas (Smiles), a Pre-K school. I’m going to start volunteering there every Monday (even though I’ve only got five left). They put me in a classroom with children who I would guess are between 1 and 2. They can walk, talk in words, and they still poop in their pants…so however old that is. Anyway, I was only there for an hour today. I don’t know if most of you know how absolutely horrible I am with kids. They hate me because they can sense my fear of them. I’m drenched with “Oh-sweet-Moses-please-don’t-puke-on-me-poop-on-me-or-stick-your-dirty-little-fingers-in-my-mouth” pheromones. Anyway, I fed some fruit to one kid and some ¡gelatina rica! (tasty jello) to a cute little girl. Then I attempted to play with them while the teacher changed diapers (thank goodness they didn’t make me do that!). Every time I sat down, Bianca, a cute little girl, sat in my lap. I was ok with it after she got her diaper changed, but before I was slightly uncomfortable with her damp little bum plopped nicely in my lap. She also liked the feel of my stubble growing on my legs and she liked my “cola” (pony tail). I think one of the little girls sensed that I wasn’t actually a native Spanish-speaker (I can’t even fool the little kids!) because she brought me a toy car and said “carro” and she touched the door and said “puerta.” So I don’t know if I was supposed to be saying, “Good job!” or “thank you for teaching me.” Anyway, I think I’ll enjoy spending 4 hours with those guys once a week. They’re pretty darn cute. However, my hands were pretty sticky when I went to dance class, and there may have been feces residue on my pants, but that’s nothing a little water and soap can’t cure.
Tonight I’ve got a potluck type fiesta to go to. One of my Spanish classes is going to get together with some Costa Ricans who are learning English. We’re going to play games and eat food. I’m planning on making some chip dip, but it’s hard when they don’t have the same things we do. And even though Wal-Mart may be the devil, I won’t deny that I miss having so many options in one building.
Anyway, I better get reading some of my novels and doing some other homework. Oh, and wish me luck this weekend that my lungs don’t explode and that I don’t get nitrogen poisoning!

Spring Break with Stephanie

Stephanie and I left my house on Sunday after a pleasant lunch with my host family. We had some nice discussions, one of which included South Dakota. My host sister really wants to come to the U.S. so she can practice her English. I told her she’s more than welcome to come visit me in Iowa and South Dakota, but that there’s not a whole lot to do there. However, Stephanie kept telling her how beautiful South Dakota was and how there is stuff to do. My family thought it was pretty funny that we kept arguing about it. And I do agree with Stephanie, there is stuff to do in South Dakota, and I’m definitely a big fan of it; however, I don’t know how most other people feel about it and I wouldn’t want her to be disappointed if it wasn’t like New York City or LA. I mean, I love tubing down the runoff polluted rivers of Iowa, I just don’t know how Georgina would feel about that.

Anyway, on Monday Stephanie and I went to La Fortuna and Arenal, and on Tuesday and Wednesday we spent a lot of time in Monteverde. We did a zip line tour in Monteverde, and we also went to a tree frog terrarium at night. We got to see some pretty colored frogs, and our guide was pretty good at mimicking frog calls. Oh, and in the zip line that we did, we got to do a “Tarzan swing,” which definitely scared me a little. We also went to a privately owned nature preserve to hike around. We saw some wildlife, and we even hiked down a pretty intense trail to see a waterfall. It was nothing compared to Mr. Chirripó, but intense nonetheless.

On Thursday we went to the Manuel Antonio National Park. We hiked around a little bit before plopping ourselves on a beach surrounded by jungle. Even though there were also many, many other tourist on the beach, I really enjoyed Manuel Antonio. It had some of the clearest water I’ve seen so far, and it was nice not having buildings behind you. Also, there are many white-faced monkeys that come around begging for food. Even though feeing them is prohibited, surprise, they still get fed. Sometimes, they even steal shoes and other items thinking they’re food (either that or they just think it’s fun to watch tourist try to run after them).

After a day on the beach, Stephanie and I were definitely ready to relax. Oh, and even though Stephanie’s legs “never, ever burn” (that is a direct quote, might I add), apparently the Costa Rican sun was just too much for that “winterized” South Dakota skin. (Just teasing, Steph…) Anyway, we spent the next day traveling back to San Jose, and Saturday we relaxed by the hotel pool.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great Easter. I missed being at home for Easter for a big dinner and hanging with family. Oh, and by the way, when I get home I’m going to eat mashed potatoes and steak for a month, and I may never, ever eat white rice again.

This weekend, I had planned on “takin’ ‘er easy” and catching up on homework. However, my family is taking me to their niece’s house which has a hot tub. So we’re going to grill and stay there Saturday night. So, so much for relaxing, but at least I’ll be spending time with my family. I’ve been speaking way too much English lately.

Well, hopefully I'll stay up to date on my whereabouts and happenings from now on.

Nicaragua Trip

Alright. So I’m finally back from my travels. I’d love to write about every detail, but I would have to write a novel, and I’m more of a short story writer. Anyway, from March 17-22, I was traveling with the program that I study through. We went to Nicaragua for most of the week, but we also saw Volcano Arenal, La Fortuna waterfall, and Monteverde Cloud Forest.

Before I write about what I did in Nicaragua, let me share some information that I found in the CIA World Fact book about Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the U.S. The GPP for each country is $3,200 (Nicaragua), $13,500 (Costa Rica), and $46,000 (U.S.). The percentage of the population that lives under the poverty line is 48% (Nicaragua), 16% (Costa Rica), and 12% (U.S.). These numbers correlate with the unemployment rates. In Nicaragua, the unemployment is 5.5% and the underemployment (not quite sure what that is…) is 46.5%. In Costa Rica it’s 5.5%, and in the U.S. 4.6%. The reason I’m sharing this information is because Costa Rica has a very large tourism industry. When I ask students here what they study, many have told me “tourism.” Anyway, my point is, Nicaragua has as many natural resources as Costa Rica, and in my opinion it is also very beautiful. However, it is so poor. And even though it could probably have what Costa Rica has, its government doesn’t care because it has other priorities like the army. The second we stepped off the tour bus in Nicaragua, there were little kids hanging on us and asking us for money. One humorous thing about these little kids and their begging is that they’re picky little beggars. I’m sorry if that sounds horrendously blunt and cruel, but it’s true. I didn’t have any Córdobas or any U.S. change, so when a little girl asked me for money I asked her if she wanted a piece of gum. She said yes, so I gave her one and then she said “two!” Well, I wanted my gum too so I told her no, but she still insisted on two, but apparently I’m heartless because I only gave her one. The next day at breakfast, a boy of about 8 was begging for food. We had some extra bread that we weren’t going to eat so we asked him if he wanted some and he said, “Yes, with butter.” There were no pleases or thank-you’s, it was definitely a command. I guess there’s not a phrase in Spanish that translates as our “beggars can’t be choosers.” Anyway, it was sad to see these children, who probably should’ve been in school, begging for money all day. Anyway, that was my tangent for the day. Now I’ll get to some of the main highlight of the Nicaraguan trip.

We stayed in Granada, which as I mentioned before is the oldest city in Central America. It was very beautiful because it was colonial. We went on carriage rides around the city and we went to watch the sunset at Lake Nicaragua (look at it on a map…it’s huge!) The next day we went on boat rides around the isletas (islands) of Lake Nicaragua. On many of these islands, homes are built, are being built, or the land is for sale, which I found sad. Our tour guide showed us some really amazing houses that are owned by the coffee plantation owners in Nicaragua. While on the boat tour, we went to an island that apparently people had put some monkeys on. To our surprise, the monkeys were quite used to tourists, and one jumped on our boat. It sat on people’s laps while trying to open our boat driver’s lunch pail that had old, crusty rice in it.

That same day we went to Managua, which has very large markets with very cheap stuff in it. When we got back to Granada, my friend Liza wanted me to go with her to the little park by our hotel because there were vendors set up there. I told her I would go there with her, but I couldn’t go near the stands because I didn’t want to spend anymore money. Well, apparently I have “sucker” written all over me because a man came up with some hammocks and asked me if I wanted to buy one. Since I was in the “no buying” mindset I firmly said no, but when he told me $5….well, who can resist a $5 hammock, even if you don’t have a place to hang it? Oh, and that same day I also purchased a $3 Cuban cigar with Liza, which we proceeded to smoke that night. I can definitely cross that off of my list of things to do before I die, and I definitely don’t need to repeat it.

The next day we went to San Juan del Sur. We took a boat ride to a beach that afternoon, and on the way back we saw “whale spouts.” I don’t know what they’re technically called, but we saw the water that shoots up when the whale breathes or whatever. Anyway, our boat driver was such a nice man that he drove us towards the whales. We actually got close enough to see their bodies and their tales come out of the water. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely glad I got to see whales in the wild, but at the same time, our boat was pretty small, so I’m glad we didn’t get any closer. (Side note: the following week I talked to some girls from Canada, and they told me about a troublesome whale near British Columbia that capsized boats full of tourist for fun…).

Anyway, once we got back to Costa Rica, we went to Monteverde and did the zip line tour. A zip line tour, or canopy tour is where they strap some gear on you, connect you to some cables, and let you “zip” through the air over the canopy or through it. It was fun, but I was hoping for something a little scarier.

Anyway, on Saturday we headed back to Heredia, and I was quite anxious to get back because my friend Stephanie had flown all the way from South Dakota to come see me in Costa Rica and was waiting for me with my host family. However, as we were leaving Monteverde, it started raining a little bit, and because we had a massive tour bus, we were unable to make it up one of the dirt roads. Despite our attempts to weigh down the back of the bus, we had to turn around, so I didn’t get home until 10:30 that night.

(I’m going to continue with this story in a different post because that way I can add more pictures!)